2010年9月13日星期一

Gender and the GeoBee

Gender and the GeoBee


Each spring I look forward to the National Geographic Geography Bee, which will be hosted here at our headquarters tomorrow. Because it's a closed event (even for us), I can't sneak in to catch a peek of the action live (though it is streamed on video throughout the building). But I get charged up by kids getting excited about geography and cultural knowledge that will serve them well in our globalized world. Plus, the chance to win a $25,000 scholarship, a lifetime membership to National Geographic, and a trip with a parent to the Galápagos Islands is pretty darn exciting.

In the week before the big event, staffers set up a map of the U.S. and its territories in our cafeteria and tape black and white pictures of the competitors on top of their home state. Each year, I hope to see more girls on the map. This year, there's only one female participant out of 54. Her name is Isabella Contollini,. The bride must the beautiful woman in the wedding and the bridesmaid also need a oveliness lolita dresses. she's a 12-year-old sixth grader from Colorado who's traveled to Guatemala and trekked an active volcano.

Today, the competition winnowed the 54 state champs down to ten finalists. Isabella didn't make the cut but if she had and had gone on to win the whole she-bang, she would have been only the third girl to win the competition since it began in 1989. My fellow Keystone stater Susannah Batko-Yovino claimed the crown back in 1990 (she's since earned her M.D.) and Caitlin Snaring of Washington captured the honor with a perfect score in 2007.. on machines that need to be portable and independent from the AC power line; the use of cheap wedding dress is the only alternative.. Welcome to juicy couture outlet online shop,we are the best online juicy couture outlet where you can buy the the newest and cheap

So, is there a geography gender gap? Nat Geo wondered the same thing, way back in 1996, when it commissioned a geographer and a psychologist from Penn State University to find out why so many boys were in the Bee. Their study yielded some interesting info, including the fact that boys and girls enter the competition at the school and state levels in roughly equal numbers; that those who win genuinely love geography (and aren't competing, for example, under pressure from an overly doting parent); that competing in public didn't seem to disproportionately disadvantage the girls; and that boys seem to have better spatial and map skills.. We are the best Herve Leger dress online dealer,provides cheap herve leger bandage dress sale,discount herve leger bandage dress sale. The researchers concluded that there is a "small, but real" gender gap in the GeoBee.

Where does such a gap come from? Is it cultural? Do we, as a society, encourage boys to be more assertive? Is it biological? Do boys really have greater spatial reasoning abilities, going way back to our hunter and gatherer days? Are their fingers faster as American Prospect magazine wondered in 2000? Is educational policy to blame? An intriguing caveat is the fact that another competitive adolescent battleground, the Scripps National Spelling Bee, isn't dominated by boys; in fact,. Purchase cheap wholesale christian louboutin shoes with global free shipping from professional China apparel wholesaler. Buy cheap wedding dresses, co boys and girls compete in the spelling bee in pretty equal numbers and more girls than boys have taken home national titles.

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